Talwars: From devoted parents to Aarushi murder convicts

He was the son of a heart surgeon and she was born to an air force officer. Both met at medical school, fell in love, got married and carved out a name for themselves in Delhi’s dentistry circles.

Nupur, born to a Maharashtrian family, was an orthodontist and Rajesh, a Punjabi, a dental surgeon. The two ran their practice out of clinics in Noida and Hauz Khas, apart from taking consultations at a leading private hospital.

Rajesh, who once headed Fortis’ dental department, also taught budding dental surgeons. He was one of the first from the north India zone to clear a prestigious qualification from American Academy of Implant Dentistry for oral implantology.

He met Nupur while pursuing Bachelor in Dental Surgery at Maulana Azad Medical College. After marriage, the two planned to have a single child, so that they could give it their undivided attention.

In 1994, Aarushi was born at their south Delhi apartment, where the couple has now returned to. The family moved to Noida when she secured an admission in Delhi Public School, Noida.

A family friend says the move to Noida, then a landscape of under-construction buildings and roads, wasn’t easy. But it was worth it.

Aarushi grew up to become an all-rounder in school; scoring above 85% for three straight years and leading her dance group. She was also an avid reader, and like most teens, a frequent user of Orkut and Facebook.

‘Loving life’; the headline on one of her profiles described her best, her friends and family members say.

But now, listlessness hangs over the Talwars’ home. The only life in it seems to stem from Aarushi’s belongings and photographs. A room has been reconstructed to resemble the one the teenager had at the Noida flat. Every other room in the house has a framed photograph of a smiling Aarushi.

There is no music, dance or movies. The family has stopped ordering pizzas, Aarushi’s favourite meal, and her grandmother has stopped baking the cake she liked most.

The couple now devotes its time to a foundation named after their daughter.

On Monday, the Ghaziabad court’s ruling appears to have vindicated the CBI’s argument that it was the parents who killed the girl and their domestic help.

While the sequence of events may have been upheld as the most plausible, the motive still remains unclear. Why did the Talwars throw away when they once had it all?